Deep Stare is a progressive metal trio from Prague, and they released their debut EP titled “Triplet” recently. Guitarist and composer Michal Popelar introduces us to the work of this great instrumental band.
Thank you for having time to answer some questions. First of all, introduce us the band Deep Stare. What does the band name refer to?
Deep Stare is an instrumental progressive rock/metal band and it was founded in September 2013. But we know each other much longer from previous musical activities. The band members are: Michal Popelář – guitar, Tomáš Monok – bass guitar and Luboš Pavlík – drums. Our work is strictly auctorial and you can find components of many musical genres.
The name refer to way, how we feel things. Whether it is a music or everything that happens in our lifes. It is important to go deep and not to judge things superficially. The superficiality made us lose „deeper“ knowledge of the essence of the matter.
Would you mind telling us about your musical background, as well as education?
Each of us has different musical backround and education. Luboš studied drums at a conservatory, I was studying violin at an art school for 7 years and Tomáš didn’t attend any art school. However it doesn’t discourage us from playing that kind of music we play. Each of us tries to improve his individual skills of playing as well as playing in a band. Always is something to improve.
You recently released your debut EP titled “Triplet.” How was the creative process for it?
In the beggining there was a song „Eternal Sense,“that we composed during our period with vocals. This song had originally two parts. The first one was sung and it was kind of rock ballad, the second one was instrumental. After our decision to make a music instrumentally we kept only the second part and called it just „Eternal Sense.“ Then we decided, that it is the high time to make other material and record a CD. Then we composed a song „Words Of Wisdom“ and at last „Obsession“, which is played only instrumentaly without samples. We made an EP „Triplet“ from these three songs. As the title says, there are only three songs on the EP.
“Triplet” is very eclectic. What do you think I should describe Deep Stare as to my friends? The real question here is, what do you guys consider the music of Deep Stare to be?
We try to build our music to evoke some feelings, thoughts, moods, but also relax. It works the best at live shows. It is necessary to immerse into the deep and to not take it as several things put together. Every another song is trying to go deeper and deeper. We are on the beggining of our existence and we belive that some day we will be able to compose songs, which nobody will have to think about and listeners will be just dragged into the music.
This eclectic music must have a wide range of influences and inspiration. Would you guys mind enlightening us as to some of the influences you haven’t mentioned already?
We draw inspiration from many sources. Each of us listens different kind of music and we are not cut from the same cloth. We try to bring variety of styles and combinations into our work. For now we are a little bit conservative, but I belive, that we will free ourselfs of the borders and we will connect more music genres into one piece. Our big inspirations definitely are Dream Theater, Rush, Led Zepelin, Pink Floyd and many many others.
Can you think of some moments where musical homages have been included in Deep Stare’s tracks?
In our songs, we hope, are not used any parts of music, that have ever been composed before. We know, that parts of classical music from famous composers are used very often, but we haven’t used it yet and we are not planning to do it.
What’s the live experience with Deep Stare like? Any plans for a tour somewhere down the road?
We have played in several concerts and festivals in the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary up to this day. We participated in international drum festival in the Czech Republic in 2014. It was great to meet musicians as Mike Terrana, Gavin Harrison etc. We have got many plans for tour, but we are still looking for someone, who would help us with it.
What have you been listening to recently? Also, would you tell us what your all-time favorite albums are?
There is so many bands and albums. Each of us listen to little bit different kind of music. It is not just progressive music, art rock or metal. There are also other genres. The music has nothing to do with rock or metal very often and still it sounds great to us.
What kind of advice would you impart to other musicians? Do you have any words of wisdom or inspiration for other artists trying to make their mark?
I’m not sure if it’s not too soon to pass on some experiences, but no matter how old are you, how long is your experience or how long you play, the most important thing is to do it by your heart. It must be honest. You have to belive in what you do. As well as he must like it.
Thank you again for agreeing to do this interview. I think I’m out of questions, so feel free to add anything you like.
Thank you for this interview.
Visit Deep Stare’s official website here, and follow the band on Facebook.
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Progarchy 